


Crossing the Veil

by shadow282



Category: RWBY
Genre: Drama, F/F, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-07-12 11:44:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15994508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadow282/pseuds/shadow282
Summary: Team RWBY was supposed to be on a simple recon mission. It wasn't supposed to go so horribly wrong. Yang wasn't supposed to die. Reeling from the tragedy, the rest of the team must pull themselves together and deal with their loss. For Blake, that means answering one vital question: If Yang is really dead, how is she still talking to her?





	1. Chapter 1

It took Blake until halfway through Ruby's mission briefing to notice that Yang was doing it again. Her partner was engaged in a game of what she dubbed "Poke the Blake" for some inexplicable reason. Yang seemed to find the name endlessly amusing so there must be some stupid joke or pun involved. She had been having fun with it for weeks since she discovered Blake's selective focus. The whole team had decided to go outside for a while, and they dragged Blake with them even though they knew full well she was mere chapters away from finding out the identity of the Pelican Killer. They at least let her take the book with them, so all she needed to do was wait a few minutes before escaping under a tree to immerse herself back into her mystery.

The next thing she knew, she was disturbed from the thrilling car chase with the killer by a dog toy smacking into her face. When she looked up, she saw two teammates with guilty looks and her partner standing in undisguised glee with a knowing look gleaming in her eyes. Blake knew right then that she was in trouble. Yang only got that look when she thought up a prank she considered particularly amusing. The last time Blake saw it, their team was in Ozpin’s office two days later explaining why the fire Dust kept electrocuting people. Seeing it clearly aimed at her was a terrifying prospect.

It quickly became very clear what Yang realized from that unfortunate incident. When Blake was really focusing on something, she zoned out the rest of the world. It was an incredibly useful skill she picked up during her childhood. She grew up on the road, living in camps and traveling place to place. She was very rarely by herself, a problem that was compounded by her naturally sharp hearing. The ability to tune out the world was the only thing that enabled her to ever read in peace. Unfortunately, it also wasn't something she could turn off at will. It took Yang about ten seconds from realizing that about her partner for her to come up with an endless series of ways to exploit it. Which Yang was determined to take full advantage of every single day.

There were a lot of variations to "Poke the Blake", but Yang had apparently decided on one of the simpler ones today. They were, after all, flying towards an area filled with dangerous Grimm. When they had entered the Bullhead, Yang made sure to stay right behind Blake. She knew exactly why Yang was doing it, but she hadn't been able to come up with a legitimate reason to complain about it. Blake tried to keep her attention on Yang, but the mission briefing was too important to ignore. Her focus slipped, and it had been a few minutes before she noticed what Yang was doing. As Ruby was talking, Yang was slowly, one by one, gathering as many strands of Blake's hair together as possible. She reached behind her and slapped Yang's hand away, but she was soon pulled back into Ruby's briefing. She lost track of Yang until the Bullhead shuddered and started to descend. She felt a slight tug on her hair, and she slapped Yang's hand away again before turning to her. The death glare she gave Yang would have petrified a lesser woman, but her only response was a smirk and a wink as the ramp lowered and they walked out.

Blake tried to tamp down on her irritation as she followed Yang out the door. The most infuriating part about Yang's new game was that it wasn't entirely unpleasant. Blake couldn’t deny that, when she did notice it, it was hard to get upset about Yang stroking her hair or running her hand down her back. She actually found it pleasant, and a little exciting, in a way that she wasn't entirely comfortable with yet. Yang had been flirting with her since a few months into their partnership, but Blake always wrote it off as Yang's personality. She found it, at best, vaguely amusing over the years. But now, it was starting to feel like something more. And Blake was starting to feel like she  _wanted_ something more. She found herself thinking of Yang's warm skin against hers, of breathing in deep the enticing scent of smoke that always seemed to surround her, of running her hands through her silken hair. She was still trying to sort through her feelings, but she knew sooner rather than later she would need to have a conversation with her partner. Which could either be utterly disastrous or the best thing to ever happen to her.

She shook her head and tried to dispel those thoughts. A mission was no time to let herself be distracted. She waited as Ruby and Weiss exited the ship and it flew away. They had landed right outside of a small village, and Ruby started walking away from it towards the trees. "Okay guys, you know what to do." Ruby said. She and Weiss walked into the forest on the right, and Blake and Yang started walking to the left.

"Okay, so what are we doing?" Yang asked Blake once they were out of Ruby's earshot.

Blake responded with a long-suffering sigh. "Were you really not paying any attention at all?"

"Nope, but that's why I've got you, Blakey."

"You would probably know what's going on if you stopped screwing with me constantly."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

"Fine. Pay attention. The village back there reported a massive increase in the amount of Grimm in the forest. We're here to check it out and to reduce the population as much as possible."

"Thanks, kitten."

"One of these days, you're going to have to remember the mission on your own."

"Probably, but not today."

They fell into companionable silence until Blake heard growling coming from the bushes ahead of them. They both stopped and waited until a dozen Ursas leaped out of the foliage and charged at them. After three years of fighting together, the pair didn't even need to talk to know exactly what to do. Yang waited until the last few seconds possible before shooting Ember Celica behind her to propel herself forward. Blake waited half a second before sprinting right after her. Once Yang reached the pack, she focused her hits not on eliminating the Grimm but on smacking the Grimm up into the air. Blake was right behind her the whole time, using Yang's perfect setup to cut straight through the unguarded bellies of the flying Grimm. On the ground, they were dangerous and quick. In the air, everything was in the hands of momentum and gravity. There wasn't much they could do to avoid her. It was over before the Grimm knew what hit them. They continued walking forward, moving closer to the center of the forest.

It took them an hour and four more Grimm encounters before they found something. They were walking through the forest when they came to the edge of a large clearing. When they entered it, Blake saw the last thing she ever would have expected. Sitting in the middle of the clearing was a mansion. It was at least four stories, and its back disappeared into the trees. It was perfectly maintained; it wouldn't have looked out of place in the middle of a city. It looked for all the world like someone simply teleported an existing mansion into the middle of this forest.

"Huh. You don't see that every day." Yang said.

"I don't like this, Yang. Something feels off about it. I'm going to call Ruby." Blake replied. From her silence, Blake could tell Yang felt the same way as her. There was nothing specific she could point to, but something about it was giving her the creeps. It seemed like they found the cause of the increased Grimm activity, although for the life of her she had no idea how they were connected.

It didn't take long for Ruby and Weiss to reach the clearing and walk over to them. "Look at how huge this mansion is! What is it doing here?" Ruby exclaimed.

"It's not that big." Weiss said

"That's because you grew up in a mega-mansion, Weiss." Yang said, earning a glare from Weiss. She looked right about to make a reply before Blake cut her off to derail their argument

"It's feels weird, Ruby. We need to check it out."

"Yeah, we do. Okay, let's begin Operation Creepy Manor!" Ruby said as she walked forward. The rest of them moved to follow her. They all moved forward slowly, focused on their surroundings. None of them held any illusions that something weird wasn't going on. They reached the front door without incident, and Ruby moved to grab the handle. It swung open before she touched it, in an entirely creepy manner, but they all ignored their apprehension and walked inside.

The inside did nothing to dispel their bad feelings. The hall they entered was centered on a spiral staircase that moved upstairs into the second floor, and there were three doors around the room that clearly led to the rest of the first floor. However, the only one without thick metal bars welded into the door frames was the one in the back. There was a large chandelier in the ceiling that lit up the room, but otherwise there was nothing. No people, no movement, no sounds.

Ruby looked around and seemed to make a decision. "Okay, we'll start on this floor and work our ways upwards."

"We should split into pairs, Ruby." Blake replied. This mansion was huge, and it would take forever to search it if they stayed together. Her uneasy feeling was already growing stronger. She didn't want to spend a second longer in here than she needed.

"That sounds like a terrible idea, Blake. Haven't you ever watched a horror movie? Never, ever split up inside the creepy mansion." Ruby said.

"This isn't a movie, Ruby. Do you really want to spend all day in here?"

"Don't worry Rubes. If we get into trouble, I'll start blowing things up to let you guys know." Yang said.

Ruby swallowed, hard, but braced herself and showed why Ozpin picked her to lead the team. She was scared, and rightfully so, but she wasn't letting that get in the way of what needed to be done. "Fine. Blake, Yang, you two explore the first floor. Weiss and I will take the second."

Yang waited until the pair disappeared up the stairs before starting towards the back door. "Are you sure that was the right play?" Yang asked her. Now that her sister was gone, Yang didn't bother keeping the nervousness out of her voice.

"No, but it's better than being in here the rest of the day. If we have to, I'm sure we could get to wherever they are within a few minutes. What could possibly be in here that we couldn't at least hold off for that long?" Yang didn't answer, and Blake knew why. Neither one knew of anything that could kill them that quickly.

Of course, if that thing did exist, it would live somewhere like a creepy deserted mansion in the woods.

* * *

**Welcome to Crossing the Veil. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. The goal right now is around ten chapters of about this length, but that may change as the story continues.**

**To give very brief background context, this is set as Team RWBY is approaching their final year graduation. Cinder's attack was stopped, and Beacon never fell.**

**Also, this is the first longer form story I'm writing, which means that I'll actually be able to incorporate any notes or suggestions I get. So please, if you have any feedback, feel free to leave a review or contact me.**

**And finally, as a reminder, it isn't graphic, but a major character does die. So be prepared for that.**


	2. Chapter 2

The search through the rest of the house did nothing to dispel the unease settled in Blake's stomach. The entire layout of the mansion seemed to defy any logical design. The first room they walked into was a massive swimming pool right in front of full library shelves. Blake needed to make a conscious effort to avoid stopping and leafing through the collections of potentially rare books. It went against her every instinct, but the mission came first. However, she couldn't stop herself from eyeing through the collection as they walked and making a few mental notes of things that looked interesting. After all, taking a few on the way out wouldn't hurt anything.

The library led into a series of smaller rooms. They alternated randomly between completely empty, fully furnished, and stocked to the ceiling with boxes filled with miscellaneous junk. They needed to double back several times as the long connecting hallways between each room occasionally ended with the doors opening into thick cement walls. Every space they entered was lit up, immaculately clean, and empty of any people or useful clues. Each step deeper into the mansion set her more and more on edge. There wasn't a single visible threat, but her danger instincts were screaming at her to leave. She honestly wasn't sure if she could have kept exploring without Yang. Her partner's presence beside her was the only comforting thing in this place.

The entire time the only sounds were the wind pounding against the windows and the patter of their footsteps on the wooden flooring. She knew the silence was contributing to her creepy feelings. They were in the middle of a forest teeming with birds, animals, and insects. Even from in here, she should have been able to hear some creatures moving around, but the only thing she heard was Yang beside her. At least, she heard her breathing and her movement; neither one of them said anything the entire time. For some reason, Blake felt like breaking the silence in here wouldn't end well.

After what felt like an eternity, they finally reached the last hallway. It ended not in a door but in a large square hole in the floor. They looked down it to see a ladder descending into a dimly lit room. The room was at least thirty feet down, and the chilled draft whistling up from the depths filled her with dread. She really, really didn't want to go down there.

"We need to go down there." Yang whispered. Blake took a few deep breaths to calm herself before responding. She knew Yang was right, but that didn't make her happy about it.

"Yeah, we do. You first." Blake replied.

Yang turned a sultry smirk onto Blake. "You're only saying that because you want to look down my shirt."

That was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment, but that didn't stop her eyes from automatically flicking down to look at her partner's rather revealing shirt. Her brain momentarily short circuited, and she started blushing as she stood without replying, too flustered to think of anything.

Yang laughed at her reaction, leaned in close, and whispered into her ear, "Looking's free. Touching is gonna cost you."

"How much?" It slipped out in a quiet voice before Blake was even aware she was going to speak.

Yang looked shocked for a second before her face lit up into a huge smile. "We'll talk about it later. Let's move." Yang suited actions to words and moved down the ladder. Blake waited for her partner to descend a little before joining her on the ladder. And, looking down, saw that it did provide an excellent view down her partner's shirt. She blushed again and was glad Yang wasn't looking up at her.

It didn't take them long to get down the ladder. The room was tiny, less than half the size of the smallest room on the first floor. In complete contrast to above them, everything was covered in such thick dust that it looked like nobody had been down here in years. They exited the room, and as soon as they were both past the door it slammed shut behind them. Blake saw Yang tense as the room was plunged into darkness. Blake didn't blame her; her night vision left the room perfectly lit but being suddenly in the dark in a creepy place would have terrified her too. "You can still see, right?" Yang asked Blake.

"Of course."

"Good. You're our eyes, then. Guide me and look out for something we can make into a torch."

Blake took a second to look around the room before saying anything. The quick glance showed her both the exit and a way to light up the room. "Okay, I'm right behind you. Start moving forward, the door is clear on the other side." Yang followed her instructions and walked forward, clearly trusting her partner to guide her safely. Trust which was almost immediately betrayed when Yang smashed her knee into a solid wooden table.

"Ow! What was that, Blake?" Yang demanded. She was clearly pissed at Blake. Flickers of red appeared in her eyes, but, more importantly, her hair started to burn yellow.

Blake pointed at her hair and said, "You needed to be able to see, and you have a built in glow-in-the-dark feature. We just needed to turn it on."

The red instantly disappeared from her eyes, but her hair remained glowing. It was bright enough to light up the area around them in soft golden light. "Well played, Blakey. Let's keep moving." They kept moving through the rooms, searching for any clues. These rooms were even creepier than the ones on the first floor. They were clearly labs, all covered with that same layer of dust as the entrance, but Blake didn't have a clue what they were studying down here. There were beakers filled with mysterious liquids lining the tables and boards filled with indecipherable writings propped against the walls. They were also in complete disarray. There was broken glass littering the floors, claw marks on some of the walls, and doors ripped completely off their hinges.

It took them searching through a dozen similar labs before finally finding a useful clue. This lab was at least twice as big as the others, and the walls were lined with containers filled with a glowing pink liquid and floating heads of the creatures of Grimm. Blake recognized the disgusting remains of Beowolves, Ursas, Nevermores, and Deathstalkers, but those weren't the most disturbing ones. The worst were the ones she didn't recognize. One looked like a deformed spider, another was a horse head with massive fangs sprouting out of its mouth, a third was only a black orb with no defining features. She was very, very glad she didn't know them. If the heads were that terrifying, she never wanted to see the bodies.

The back wall, fortunately, was lined only with book shelves. In the middle of the shelves stood a single desk with a computer. When they got close, they saw that it was opened to a list of video files. "Do you think we should play one?" She quietly asked Yang.

Yang nodded at her. "Yeah, I think we have to check them out." Blake scanned down the list until she saw one named "Success!", reached over, and hit play. A woman in a lab coat popped up onto the screen. She was middle age, with long auburn hair and eyes that seemed to shine with a pale green light.

"The first trial was a success. We have managed to successfully meld my aura with that of a Beowolf, and the Beowolf has used it to successfully defend itself. Of course, now we need to move on to the next step of the project. Maybe it's simply euphoria from our recent success, but I have a good feeling about our chances. And, if we can succeed here, we should be able to eliminate the Grimm threat forever." The video ended on that image of the woman, a hopeful smile fixed on her face.

"Giving Grimm aura? That's completely crazy." Yang said. Blake nodded at her. The Grimm were dangerous enough without giving up one of the few advantages people had over them.

"Yes, it is. And it clearly backfired on them."

"Still, it doesn't tell us what happened to everyone. Maybe try playing the last video file." Blake scrolled down until she reached the bottom, simply marked as "Entry 20382", and hit play. The same woman as before appeared on the screen. "We've suffered another setback with the project. The Grimm manifest the aura perfectly well, but we can't yet manipulate it into reduced aggression. We're close, I know it, but they can't keep pushing us like this. Experiments are getting sloppy, procedures are being ignored, scientific rigor is being tossed out in favor of expediency. I know this can work, but not if they keep rushing everything." As soon as she was finished speaking the screen cut to black.

"We should go back and find Ruby and Weiss. Now that we know what is in here, we should report everything. Beacon will handle the rest." Yang said.

"No, we should finish exploring down here, Yang. There can't be much more, and we could find something else useful." Yang looked like she wanted to argue, and part of Blake hoped she would disagree. She thought that they needed to explore more, but her instincts desperately wanted her to leave. She was perfectly ready to be convinced by Yang.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Yang felt the same way she did. All she got was a nod of agreement, and the pair turned and walked to the door set into the back wall. They entered a small room, and they were halfway through it before the door behind them slammed shut and Blake's danger sense exploded. Yang seemed to feel it too, as both of them moved closer together, crouched down, and started staring at the only open exit for any threat.

Nothing came through, but Blake heard a hissing from above them before she felt drips of some liquid start spraying down. They both turned and sprinted towards the exit, but by the time they burst into the next room both their bodies were drenched in the substance. Blake's body suddenly felt warm as whatever exposed skin was touched by the liquid heated up. As she started frantically wiping it off her skin, it suddenly felt tingly, like someone was wiping a feather down her skin. Once she finally got it all off, the feeling and warmth disappeared, but she felt incredibly exposed. It took her a few seconds to realize why; her aura was completely gone, and she couldn't manage to bring it up again.

She turned to Yang and judged from the panic in her eyes that her aura was gone too. "We need to get out of here." Yang said. There was a quiet terror in her voice that Blake had never heard before.

Blake nodded, but before they could move they heard the sound of prowling feet on the floor behind them. They turned and saw a dozen glowing red eyes approaching them from the only exit to the room.


	3. Chapter 3

As six Beowolves crept out of the open door, Blake tried to still her racing heart as terror surged through her. She knew she shouldn't be worried; either one of them could take six Beowolves in their sleep. Of course, that was with her aura. Without it, she was more vulnerable than she had been since she was a child. A single mistake on her part would lead to Beowolf claws or teeth ripping straight through her, and she didn't even have her semblance to help her dodge attacks. This fight was solely her training versus the speed and strength of the Grimm, and somewhere deep inside her was scared that her training would be found wanting.

Then Yang grabbed her hand, and she felt a wave of calm roll through her. She realized it wasn't her training against the Grimm; it was the years of skill, experience, and trust she built up with her partner against them. Six Beowolves didn't stand a chance against that power.

"Ready, Blake?" Yang asked from beside her. She gave assent, and Yang sprang forward. The strategy was the same they used earlier in the forest. Blake waited for the first Grimm to leave the ground before leaping forward and slashing up at its throat. It was supposed to cut through it and leave it a dissolving body in the ground; instead it hit the Beowolf and sent it flying into the wall. Blake saw a little flicker of light play across its dark skin as it moved past her.

Her instant of complete shock quickly turned into a disturbing revelation. These Grimm could manifest an aura. The very idea repulsed her. Even after hearing the video, she hadn't really believed it was possible. The first thing anyone learned about aura was that only people could manifest it. Whatever the woman said, a Grimm with an aura wasn't possible. Except, of course, that six of those impossibilities were currently trying to eat her.

Blake felt panic flutter inside her. She knew they could take six Beowolves, but could they take six Beowolves with aura? Especially without any protection of their own? Blake's sudden fear stopped her from reacting fast enough to stop the next Grimm from sailing past her unharmed, but she recovered enough to hit the rest of them. The first three took the same slash without taking any damage, but when she hit the last one her blade cut straight through its throat. It died instantly, and Blake breathed a sigh of relief that they at least took out one of them. She turned to face the recovering pack as Yang ran back to her side.

"This is bad, Yang." Blake said. She couldn't keep the strain and worry out of her voice, and from the look in her partner's eyes, Yang felt the same.

"Yes, it is. But I've got an idea." She grabbed one end of Gambol Shroud. "Spin me?" Blake nodded, and she started spinning Yang around with all her strength. As the Beowolves jumped forward, Yang gathered speed and momentum. They reached range by Yang's third rotation, and she fired shotgun blasts behind her to gain speed right before aiming for the closest Grimm. She smashed into it with a loud pop, and the force of her blow shattered its aura. She was going so fast she punched straight through it, and she still had enough force to smash through the second Grimm in line. Once she was past the rest, she let go of Gambol Shroud, rolled to her feet, and jumped straight into the backs of the charging Beowolves. Blake raced in to join her, and they both engaged the remaining Grimm.

Two shotgun blasts to the back turned one of the Beowolves around towards her partner, and Blake was left to deal with the front two. She swallowed her fear and leapt at the one on the right. A slash to its leg bounced off, and Blake rolled under its retaliatory swipe and stabbed the stomach of the other one. It also hit aura, and she was forced to somersault backwards out of the way of its bite.

They kept charging forward, and she waited until they were close enough to strike before jumping over them and unleashing a flurry of attacks on the back of the left one. She spun managed to get in three hits before it pivoted back, and she needed to retreat. She fired several shots into it as she moved backwards and was rewarded with a flickering of light after the first before the next ones sunk deep into its flesh. She aimed at its legs, and the hits slowed it enough that the other Beowolf flew ahead of it. Blake dodged past that one's swipe before reaching range of the one with the broken aura and cutting straight through it. She quickly turned around, and any fear disappeared at the sight of the final Beowolf. It roared in rage before charging straight at her.

That was its final mistake. As it focused all its attention forward, Yang sprinted behind it. Once she got close, she jumped onto its back and slammed Ember Celica into its head. The Beowolf was knocked to the floor, and she simply smashed her fists into it over and over until it stopped moving. As Yang got up, Blake took a second to take stock. Both her and Yang were breathing heavily, and her hands were still shaking a little from adrenaline after the fight. Fighting without aura was significantly more stressful.

"I guess we know how the Grimm feel about fighting us now." Yang joked. Blake couldn't stop herself from letting out a loud laugh. Yang's joke was as terrible as always, but she needed something to defuse the tension.

"Yeah. It's not fun. Let's not do it again, okay?"

"Not planning on it. Now let's get out of here." Yang got out her scroll as they started walking towards the door and dialed in Ruby's number.

"Did you guys find anything?" Ruby's voice rang out.

"Because we didn't find anything except dust." Weiss added.

"We found everything we need. We're in the basement, and we're on our way up. Let's meet outside, okay? I don't want to spend a second longer in" Yang was cut off when Blake pushed her to the ground, right before something flew by above their heads and smashed into the door. The door collapsed, and they were suddenly trapped inside the room. Blake looked up and felt her blood run cold. There was a massive hole on the ceiling that she was too busy to notice before and crawling out of it was the biggest Death Stalker she had ever seen.

As it got further out, she noticed it was wrong in several ways. There was way too much armor plating on it, the tail was twice as long as normal, and the whole thing was surrounded by a light red glow. Blake instantly recognized it as the glow of aura. A  _lot_ of aura. The Death Stalker dropped to the floor, and its weight made the entire ground shake.

"I don't know that we can kill this, Yang." Blake said.

"We don't have to kill it. Ruby and Weiss know where we are, and after that call cut off they know something is wrong. We hold out until they get here then run as fast as possible. Once we have an exit, it won't be able to catch us." It wasn't exactly the bravest thing to do, but Blake wasn't planning on complaining about it. Under the circumstances, getting to safety until their aura came back was the top priority.

"Okay. What's the play?" Blake asked. Before Yang could answer, the Death Stalker's claw blurred forward and slammed into Yang. She went flying into the back wall, hitting it with a loud smack and enough force to crack the stone around her. Blake didn't even have time to see if she was okay before she needed to leap backwards to avoid the other claw swinging towards her. She pulled out Gambol Shroud and started sprinting around the Grimm, firing at its exposed eyes and leaping over its claws. She got about halfway to Yang before it struck out with its tail, forcing her to roll backwards to avoid it.

As it moved forward towards her, Blake heard shotgun blasts sounding from behind its back, and her face lit up into a fierce smile. Her partner was still ready to fight. The Death Stalker quickly pivoted to deal with the attack at its back, but as soon as its attention was turned Blake rushed forward and attacked. She knew exactly what Yang would be doing; she would have faded backwards as soon as the Grimm turned, and she would currently be dodging it and letting her partner attack its undefended back.

It was the standard tactic against a large opponent. Circle around it, force it to need to focus on only one of them at a time, and slowly whittle down its defenses until it was eliminated. The problem was that everything Blake tried was absorbed by the Death Stalker's aura. She didn't have a clue how long it could withstand her attacks before it broke, and even after it did they would still be facing an undamaged Death Stalker. "Holding it off" would be much easier if they could at least slow the thing down a little.

The Death Stalker suddenly pivoted around, but by the time its claws could reach Blake she already disengaged and started dodging. Blake heard Yang shooting at its back as she rolled and leapt over its attacks. Blake had just finished spinning around one of its claws when the Death Stalker let out a loud screech. She figured one of Yang's hits must have finally gotten through because it ignored her to turn towards her partner. Blake charged forward again as it threw its claws out at Yang.

Its claws, but not its tail. That lashed down from the air, quicker than Blake could react, and slammed her into the ground. The force of the blow knocked the air out of her, and she felt a sharp shooting pain accompanied by a loud crack as something broke in her arm. She screamed in agony before the Death Stalker flicked her with its tail and rolled her across the floor. She heard Yang yell her name right before her head smashed into the stone wall, and suddenly everything went blurry. She tried to move, but the best she could do was lift her arms an inch before collapsing. The Death Stalker advanced on her, claws raised, and Blake knew she was helpless to stop it.

The open claw darted toward her, and all Blake could do was stare as her death rushed towards her. She heard a scream, saw Yang spring in front of her, and watched helplessly as the claws meant for her instead sunk deep into her partner's stomach. The Death Stalker lifted Yang up, violently shook her, and dropped her to the floor. Blake watched her partner hit the ground, her head twisted at an unnatural angle and her suddenly lifeless eyes staring straight at Blake.

Blake couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't cry. All she could do was wait to join her partner in death. The Grimm raised it claw again, but before it could move Blake saw a massive ghostly blue sword descend from the ceiling straight into the Death Stalker. Blake felt her consciousness slipping away, and the last image before she passed out was a blur of petals racing towards Yang's body.


	4. Chapter 4

Blake was lying on the seat of a Bullhead. Her face was staring sideways, and some unknown form under a red cloak laid on the seats across from her. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on or how she got here. She tried to move or speak, but no matter how much effort she put in she couldn't do anything. She was alone with nothing but a pounding headache to keep her company. She sat like that for a time before she felt her head being lifted into someone's lap. Someone started gently stroking her hair, and a wave of calm ran through her. She managed to summon the will to look up and saw her partner sitting with a sad smile on her face.

"Rest, Blake. I promise it'll be okay. I'm not going anywhere." Yang said. Blake realized that something was wrong with this, somehow, but she couldn't put her finger on the problem. Her head was too fuzzy, and anything like a coherent thought that formed was quickly shaken loose. It was too much for her to process, and she passed out again.

When she woke up, she recognized her surroundings as a Beacon hospital room. She had about half a second of bleary confusion before the air was driven from her lungs as a red blur jumped onto her. "Blake, you're awake." Ruby said. Her voice sounded so despondent that Blake could barely believe it came from Ruby. "We were so worried about you." Blake didn't have enough air to respond, but that was fixed when Weiss grabbed her partner and pulled her off the bed.

"The doctors said you shouldn't try to move, okay? You have a severe concussion, a broken arm, and three broken ribs." Weiss said. Her voice was more controlled, but there was a little bit of depression that seeped through it. Blake really didn't understand why it was there. Were they still worried about her head injury? Sure, her head wouldn't stop buzzing, but was it really that bad?

Blake tried to sit up, but her muscles wouldn't move that far. All she got was a little twitch from all her efforts. The best she could do was turn her head to look at her teammates and see that their appearances matched their voices. Weiss' face wore a hopeful smile, but the tears in her eyes revealed it was fake. She occasionally glanced over at Blake, but most of the time her focus was on her partner. A focus which Blake completely understood when she looked at Ruby.

She was even worse than Weiss. Tears marks ran heavily down her face; it was clear she had been sobbing for quite some time. Her eyes were clear now but lacked the shining light Blake had always seen in them. These were sunken and haunted. The abundant energy that she always displayed was completely gone, replaced with a sense of fragility. She looked like a woman seconds away from falling apart.

Suddenly everything came rushing back to her, and Blake felt like her heart stopped beating. The mansion, the basement, the Death Stalker. The most horrible grief she ever felt raced through her, and she couldn't stop the tears from appearing in her eyes. "Yang, is she" was all she got out before Ruby collapsed. Weiss grabbed her before she fell and pulled Ruby into her arms. Ruby buried herself in her partner's shoulder, and her entire body shook with sobs. Weiss, tears already flowing from her own eyes, could only nod.

Blake could barely even process what had happened. Yang, dead. Her partner, dead. The strongest among them, the person who burned more strongly with life than anyone Blake had ever met, the woman who could take punishment again and again and only grow more powerful, gone. The woman she just started to realize she loved, deeper and more fully than anything she had ever felt. Out of her reach forever, before she could even talk to her. And it was all her fault. She suggested they split up, she suggested they keep looking around, she was the one who was knocked defenseless. Those claws should have pierced her, that Death Stalker should have killed  _her._ After everything she had done, she didn't deserve to live, not if Yang had to die.

The three of them, Team RWB, sat together in silence, sharing in their grief over their dead friend. The only sounds came from the tears that none of them could stop shedding.

/

_When Blake opened her eyes, she was on her bed in her dorm room. She felt something wet on her face, and when she went to wipe it off she was surprised to find they were tears. Whatever nightmare she experienced must have been pretty bad. She tried to remember the details, but all she got was a creepy house and something to do with claws._

_She considered getting up, but it was a Saturday. There was nothing urgent to do, and her bed was so very comforting right now. She laid there and enjoyed the warmth for a while before the door opened and Yang walked in. "Good, I was just coming to wake you. You've been lazing around for way too long kitten."_

_"We have nothing going on today. Weiss and Ruby are off getting a definitely-not-awkward breakfast with Winter." She looked straight at her and gave Yang her most suggestive smile. "Do you really want me to get up, or would you rather join me?" The excitement that lit up Yang's face answered for her, and she came over and snuggled right up to her. Blake enjoyed the warmth radiating off her girlfriend, but there was one place the warmth didn't reach. Her stomach remained cold, and when she reached down to check why she felt liquid squirt onto her hand. When she brought it up, she saw her hand was drenched in blood._

_She screamed and jumped off the bed. Yang's only reaction was to turn and prop herself up onto her side. "What's wrong, kitty cat?" Blake looked at her stomach and saw the massive holes on either side, and suddenly the memory of everything that happened flooded into her mind._

_"This isn't real. You're dead." She said._

_"Don't be ridiculous, Blakey. If I died, who would take care of you?" Yang replied with a laugh. Upon hearing that, for a few glorious seconds, Blake believed her. Her heart soared as she imagined Yang being alive._

_But it was too good to be true, and Blake knew it. "I saw you get stabbed. I saw the Death Stalker break your neck."_

_"What, this?" Yang asked in an incredulous voice as she gestured downwards. "These are simply flesh wounds, kitten. They'll heal soon enough." Her face suddenly lit up in a sly smile. "Although if you want to nurse me back to health I wouldn't be opposed to it. We can get you a nice little costume. I'm sure I'd heal much faster with a gorgeous view." Blake felt her heart rate quicken and her breathing increase as a warm wave flushed through her. She was sure she would enjoy that as much as Yang._

_But it wasn't real. Yang was gone. "This is a nightmare. You're a figment of my imagination. You'll disappear when I wake up, and I'll still be alone."_

_"Wrong. Here, I'll prove it to you." Yang got up, reached under her bed, and pulled out a letter. The ribbon wrapping it closed was a twin to the bow on her head. She walked over to Blake and handed it to her. "I wrote this for you a long time ago. Go on, read it."_

_Blake undid the ribbon, but before she could unfold the paper Yang grabbed her hand. "But first, I need you to do something for me." Blake fixed her gaze onto those beautiful lilac eyes. She never wanted to leave this moment with her partner._

_"Anything."_

_Yang's words rang out as serious for the first time in the conversation. "Blake, you have to wake up."_

Blake sat up in bed with a start. She was still in the hospital bed, and Ruby and Weiss were sleeping wrapped in each other's arms on a bed beside her. The happiness she felt in the dream shattered, and she started crying again. She couldn't help herself; it felt so  _real_  that even when she realized it was a dream she couldn't stop her hopes from going up that somehow Yang would be sleeping beside her. She laid down again, alone in the dark, and cried herself to sleep.

/

"I want to remind you that I don't believe you, Blake. The only reason I didn't freeze you back into that hospital bed is that you waited until Ruby was gone before bringing it up. The doctors said you shouldn't even be moving." Weiss said. Blake nodded.

"I know, okay? I know it was probably only a dream. But it felt so real, I need to at least check." Blake said as she opened their dorm room door. She knew she was setting herself up for disappointment, but she hadn't been able to get it out of her head the last few days. There was no way she could keep going without finding out. "In my dream, it was right under her bed." Blake reached under the same spot, fully expecting to feel nothing. She let out a shocked gasp as her hands closed on paper. She pulled it out, and it was the same letter with the black ribbon from her dream.

Blake felt her heart shoot up. This proved Yang wasn't gone. She didn't kill her partner. Somehow, she was out there, communicating with her. Her hands tore into the ribbon, and she unfolded the paper as quickly as possible.

Dear Blake,

If you're reading this, I'm dead. Which sucks, obviously. But, even worse, it means I never told you how I felt. It started growing inside me right after we became partners, and it's never stopped. Right now it feels like my heart might burst from its strength. But I can't bring myself to tell you yet. Because I'm scared. I'm scared that you don't feel the same. I'm scared that telling you might ruin what we have now. I'm too terrified of losing our present to try and find out what we might be in the future.

Maybe by the time you're reading this letter, things have changed. Maybe I'm sitting on the bed next to you, and we're laughing at how I was so sappy and ridiculous. But in case we're not, in case I'm gone before I work up the courage to tell you in person, I need to let you know. I love you, Blake Belladonna, and I always will.

She felt her eyes tearing up, and she turned to Weiss. She was standing there, completely speechless, staring at the letter. Her eyes had the slightly glazed look that Blake recognized she wore when she was trying to make a tough decision. "This proves Yang is still out there somehow! We need to talk to someone, we need to figure out how to find her!" Blake yelled. She couldn't help herself. For the first time the crushing guilt she had been carrying every waking moment was gone.

"Do you really think that's what happened?" Weiss asked. Her voice was uncharacteristically gentle. "What's more likely, that Yang is communicating with you in your dreams, or that she told you about this letter years ago? Does it make sense to hide a letter to you somewhere nobody would ever find it?" When put like that, the choice seemed obvious. The happiness that was coursing through her vanished as the crushing grief came back. Weiss, noticing, moved forward and grabbed her arms. She started pulling her back out the door. "We've been through a lot, Blake, and you hit your head pretty hard. Let's go back to the hospital and rest some more." Blake nodded, too demoralized to do anything but let Weiss lead her back to her hospital room.


	5. Chapter 5

Blake had never been to a funeral before. She hadn't even been entirely sure what happened at one; they were unheard of for most of her life. Faunus apparently approached death in a fundamentally different way than humans. When a Faunus died, they were buried as soon as possible. There was no ceremony, no hiding the wounds, no fancy clothes. Not out of a lack of respect, but out of simple necessity. Humans could hide death for a time under perfume and preservatives, but with their enhanced senses Faunus didn't have that luxury. The rot of death could be smelled almost immediately, and there was no way to disguise it.

Humans had time to prepare. They had time to take her back home, to gather all her friends and family, to set up a ceremony on a peaceful hillside, to make her look beautiful. Standing above Yang in her casket, she seemed perfect. Her beloved hair was straightened, her neck was fixed, her eyes were closed peacefully, her dress was gorgeous, and her head was lying comfortably on Ruby's cloak. She looked like she was sleeping, like at any moment she could get up and walk away. Blake knew she was the only one here who could smell the lie beneath it. She wasn't sure if that made it better, worse, or changed nothing. All she knew was that there was a cloud of grief and guilt hanging around her mind. The light in her life was gone, and nothing would ever bring it back.

She leaned down and laid a kiss on Yang's forehead before returning to her seat among the rows of chairs on the hillside. Each of the dozens there were filled with people, most of whom Blake had never met before. She was sitting in the front row next to Weiss, Ruby, and her family. As she sat down next to Weiss, Ruby walked up to the hilltop, which in itself told her how bad Ruby was doing. Blake had seen her friend bound, skip, bounce, run, and speed around to places. She had never before seen Ruby simply walk somewhere. She stopped in front of Yang, but she seemed to be spending as much time looking at her as she did staring at her mother's grave. Blake didn't have to talk to her to know exactly what was going through her mind. First her mother was taken from her, then her sister. Ruby was standing up there wondering who was next. Would it be her father, her uncle, her partner, or her friends? Who would be ripped out of her life next time? The hope and optimism that had animated Ruby since Blake met her was completely gone, and Blake wasn't sure it would ever be back. She stood up there for a few minutes before shuffling back and collapsing into her seat next to Weiss. She sat there looking like the most devastated woman in the world.

Not that Blake herself looked much better. She was barely sleeping or eating, and it showed. Her lingering injuries only added to the look. Her head had stopped constantly pounding, but there was a dull ache that refused to ever leave her. The rest of her wasn't in much better shape. Her arm was still in a sling from the Death Stalker's tail breaking it, and she still had several cracked ribs from smashing into the wall. Her arms and legs were still covered in cuts and bruises that were stubbornly refusing to heal. The doctors said that she had taken so much damage that her aura was struggling to repair it all, but she knew they were lying. That was certainly a part of it, but the main reason was something they were trying to keep from her until they figured how to fix it. Fortunately for her, with the bow still fixed on her head the doctors didn't know that she was a Faunus. If they knew, they probably wouldn't be having secret conversations right outside her room.

They were trying to hide that her aura was flickering. She couldn't tell the difference; ever since she woke up in the hospital, her ability to manifest aura had returned. It felt the same to her as always, but the instruments they used to measure aura were very precise. They could tell, even if she couldn't, that most of the time it was so weak that a single hit would be enough to shatter it. Occasionally, though, her aura would manifest itself to more than twice her usual limit. The changes were completely random, and the doctors didn't have a clue what was causing them.

What they did know was that they were causing her to heal in very short bursts followed by long periods of nothing. It was why things that should have healed in hours were still problems a week later. Even a Huntsman with life threatening injuries only stayed in a hospital for a few days, but there was no telling how long she would be sleeping there.

Not that it mattered. She didn't want to get out of the hospital anyway. She suspected that even if she was released tomorrow, she would spend all her time in a bed. All she felt like doing was resting. The thought of doing anything else, of fighting or talking or even reading terrified her. This was the longest she had been out of the hospital bed since returning, and as soon as this was finished she would be right back in her room.

Yang's dad walked up to the top of the hill and began to give a eulogy. His voice came out strong and steady, despite the clear anguish that was written all over his face. Blake had no doubt his eulogy was touching and heartfelt and probably made everyone feel better about today, but she couldn't hear anything past the first few sentences. The entire time all she did was stare at Yang's body. Despite the fact that she knew Yang was dead, Blake couldn't shake the irrational hope that she would simply wake up and walk over to her with a laugh. She would come over to her team and explain how all of this was a terrible mistake. They would go home and leave these horrific memories behind them. Her focus remained on Yang throughout the entire eulogy, throughout them lifting her up, and only moved once they lowered her into the ground.

As the dirt was slowly piled back into the grave, Blake couldn't shake the horrible wrongness that hung around the whole funeral. It felt like the world shouldn't be like this. Yang shouldn't be gone while she was still here. Her grief overtook her again, and she started crying. She felt it when Ruby wrapped her arms around her and felt it again when Weiss' arms joined them. But despite the contact with her team, despite their shared grief, Blake had never felt so alone.

/

_She was standing in an open field, and for the first time ever the world was dark. Even her night vision couldn't do anything to pierce this thick dark cloud. She wondered if this was what the night always looked like to humans._

_"Enjoying the view?" Blake heard someone ask from behind her. She turned and saw Yang walking up to her. She was lit up like a beacon against the dark, and everywhere she walked remained visible even after she left. Blake stared at her until she was only a few feet away. But this time, Blake closed down her heart. She was determined not to let it happen again._

_"You're not really here. You're only a dream." The words echoed around the field long after she said them. Each time they came around, they sounded more and more wrong. Yang seemed to consider that for a few seconds before walking up until she was only inches away from Blake._

_Then she raised her hand and punched Blake's arm. The force from the blow drove Blake to her knees, and pins and needles of pain stabbed their way upwards from her arm. "Ow!" She screamed, the pain temporarily blocking out all her other feelings. "What was that?!"_

_Yang's expression morphed into a guilty look, and she reached down and pulled Blake up from the ground. Yang pulled Blake close and held her tight. "You hear me." She said, pointing to her ears. "You see me." She pointed at her eyes. "You feel me." Yang clasped both of Blake's hands in her own, and Blake couldn't deny the familiar heat she felt radiating off her. "And I can move you." Yang poked her in the shoulder. "What about that suggests to you that I'm dead?"_

_Blake thought about it, but it didn't make any sense. She knew Yang was dead and buried, and that meant this woman could only be a dream. But the dead can't talk to people, and dreams can't hurt. The two opposite thoughts conflicted in her mind, but she couldn't decide which one was real. All she knew was that she desperately didn't want her partner to be gone from her life._

_"Nothing." She said, hoping that her words would somehow make it real. Upon hearing that, Yang's face lit up in a brilliant smile._

_"I knew you would get it! You're a very smart woman, after all."_

_"Then what are you, Yang, since you're not dead? We buried your body this morning." Yang's smile dropped, and a contemplative look took its place._

_"I have no idea what's happening, Blake. All I know is that I'm here, by your side, and I won't let anything keep us apart." That's all Blake ever wanted to hear. She stepped forward and squeezed her partner in a tight hug._

_"Good. I couldn't bear to be alone." She whispered. Yang laughed._

_"You'll never be alone, silly. You'll always have Ruby and Weiss."_

_In her happiness, Blake_   _had completely forgotten her other teammates. "I have to let them know you're alive!" She said. "But how can I convince them?"_

_"Don't worry Blakey, it's easy." Yang pulled back and smiled at her. "All you have to do is wake up."_

"No!" Blake yelled as she bolted up in her hospital bed. She looked around, but it was empty. No Yang, no anybody. Just her, alone.


	6. Chapter 6

_Blake opened her eyes to see Yang and herself walking through the forest. She followed as they pushed forward until they reached the clearing to the mansion. She watched as Dream her pulled out her scroll to call Ruby. Instead of dialing the number, however, the entire world froze as Dream Blake turned and stared right at her._

_"This was your first mistake. You find a massive unknown structure in the middle of the forest. You can feel how wrong it is in there. But, instead of calling Beacon, you decide to call your team. So very arrogant." The venom burning behind her eyes and the hatred dripping over every word drove her back a few steps. The scene suddenly unpaused and Dream her called Ruby. She waited for the rest of her team to arrive and followed them inside the house. Right after Dream her said they should split up, everything froze again._

_"This was your second mistake. You really thought you were competent enough to watch Yang's back? You couldn't even protect yourself!" The scene unpaused, and Blake followed Dream her and Yang as they explored the first floor. The scene kept going until Yang was crouching to climb down the trapdoor._

_"Your third mistake. You should have pushed Yang against the wall and taken her here. Screw finishing the mission, and just screwed her. Like you both wanted for years. You were simply too cowardly to admit it."_

_Dream her turned back around, and they descended into the basement. It didn't freeze again until the end of the video files._

_"Your fourth mistake. You learned everything you needed to know, but that wasn't enough for you. You needed to learn everything, didn't you? How'd that work out?" Everything unfroze, and the dream continued. She watched as their aura was stripped from them and as they defeated the Beowolves. She saw the Death Stalker enter and destroy their only exit and watched as her and Yang began their desperate battle for survival, knowing the inevitable outcome but rooted in place._

_"You know, seeing it from this angle makes it clear that I'm really, really hot. How did you restrain yourself from jumping on me for all these years?" Blake didn't even have to look to know Yang was standing beside her. She ignored her partner's comment._

_"You shouldn't have to die. It isn't right." She said. Yang laughed._

_"Everybody dies, Blakey. It's the least interesting thing about a person." As she talked, Blake watched herself mess everything up. Rushing in, focusing on the obvious threat of the claws instead of what she should have known was more dangerous. Stupid. She was so very stupid, and Yang paid everything for it._

_"You shouldn't have died for me."_

_"I died for the woman I loved. Is there any death better than that?"_

_"I'm not worth it!" She screamed back._

_Yang laughed merrily. The contrast between the darkness of the cavern and the joy in her voice was startling. "Of course you are, Blakey. You're worth everything to me." She looked like she was going to go on, but she stopped when a raven landed on her shoulder. Her face lit up with disgust. "Great, that's definitely what we needed right now."_

_"What?" Blake asked._

_"An unfortunate distraction. Don't listen to her, okay? She doesn't have a clue what she's talking about."_

_"Who doesn't?" Instead of answering, Yang walked forward until she was right in front of Blake. She leaned over until her mouth was almost against Blake's ear._

_"My mother." She whispered before shoving Blake backwards. As she fell, the scenery started melting before her eyes._

When Blake opened her eyes, she was struck with the sudden feeling she wasn't alone. She started to sit up, but before she rose more than a few inches she felt cold steel against her skin as a red sword appeared on her neck. She looked over to see Raven holding it steady against her throat. With Blake's reduced aura, she would be able to kill her right there with nothing more than a little pressure. She knew this deadly threat should terrify her, but frankly she was finding it hard to really muster up any feelings about it.

"Are you going to kill me?" Blake asked quietly.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't. You killed my daughter." Raven replied. Blake was surprised to hear the sheer anguish in her voice. Raven looked calm and focused on the outside, but it was clear that she was suffering from Yang's death as much as anyone else.

"I can't. You're right." Blake said. She closed her eyes and waited for Raven to end it all, but the sword didn't move an inch.

"I told Yang she would get herself killed." Raven said in a tone that made it clear she wasn't talking to Blake anymore. She opened her eyes to see Raven staring into an empty corner of the room. "The strong live, and the weak die. That's how the world should work. I told her trying to protect the weak would end badly, and I was right." Raven's eyes suddenly locked into Blake's, and she had to make an effort to avoid recoiling from those furious red orbs.

"You're weak, Blake. Look at you. My daughter died for a woman who's spent her time since hiding in a bed from a few small injuries. You're pathetic. I can't imagine how my daughter ever cared for you."

"I don't know why. I didn't deserve it." Blake said. Raven suddenly moved her sword forward a little, and she felt a prick of pain as it broke her aura and a trickle of blood started falling from the small wound. She held the blade there, making it very clear she could end Blake's life with a small push.

"Did she love you?" Raven asked.

"Yes." Even after reading Yang's letter, this was the first time she had ever said it out loud. Like with most of her life now, it felt empty and pointless. What did her feelings matter now that she was gone? Raven's only response was to stare at her. Blake had no idea how long she stood there without doing anything, but eventually Raven's sword disappeared from her neck and returned to its sheath.

"She always was a fool." Raven said before turning and walking out the door. Blake sat alone in her now empty room, staring at the wall. She honestly couldn't decide if she was happy Raven had left her alone or sad she hadn't finished the job.

/

Blake was doing something she had promised herself that, under no circumstances, she would ever do. She was telling Ruby about her dreams. She hadn't meant to say anything, but she had needed to talk about it so badly she blurted it out the instant Ruby sat down next to her bed. As she spoke, she realized that, more than anything, she desperately needed a friend to tell her she wasn't crazy. "When I'm in there, it seems so real. Yang seems so real. I can talk to her and touch her, and it just feels so much like  _her_ that every time it happens, I can't stop myself from thinking that she's somehow still alive." Blake finished. Ruby's attention had been rapt for her entire explanation. Which wasn't much of a surprise; Ruby was taking Yang's death about as well as Blake. Although, considering it was entirely possible she was going insane, probably slightly better.

After she finished, Ruby only sat there staring at her. Blake tried to give her time to process everything, but she couldn't bear to wait for very long.

"You believe me, right?" She asked. There was a quiet desperation in her voice that she knew Ruby couldn't possibly miss. Ruby looked at her, and for the first time since returning Blake saw something other than grief in her eyes. Not that this was much better; they were filled with pity.

"I believe that's what you're seeing, Blake. I believe that's what you think is happening. But do I actually believe the sister I buried is somehow alive and reaching into your dreams to talk to you? No." Blake felt her eyes begin to water up. Ruby's words had been compassionate, but they had also been pretty clear. She didn't believe her. And, honestly, Blake didn't blame her. It sounded completely crazy. If it didn't feel so real to her, she wouldn't have believed it either.

"Listen, Blake, you're under a lot of stress. You feel guilty about what happened. You shouldn't. What happened was my fault. I'm the team leader; I decided to split us up, I decided you should go into the basement. You were alone down there because of choices I made." Blake saw Ruby begin to tear up and quickly pulled her down into a tight hug. She started stroking her hair and felt terrible about herself. Yang had practically raised Ruby; they had a bond that went beyond anything Blake had experienced before. Despite that, Blake was the one in the hospital bed feeling sorry for herself.

"I'm sorry, Ruby. I'm being selfish."

Ruby pulled away and looked at her. "No, you're not. We're all taking it hard. Even Weiss, though she's trying not to show it. We just need to be here for each other, all right? We'll get through this as long as we stay strong together."

Blake nodded. "Okay, I can do that." She hesitated for a second but decided she needed to hear Ruby say it clearly, one way or another. "But what about my dreams? Do you think I'm going crazy?"

"No, Blake. I think you're being driven by guilt, and I think whatever happened to you in that lab is driving your aura crazy. We can talk each other through the guilt, and Professor Ozpin has teams going over the mansion. They'll figure out what happened and fix your aura. Then we'll go on and become the best Huntresses on Remnant, like Yang would have wanted." Blake nodded. Ruby's optimism wasn't much, but it was enough for her to hold onto. For now, at least. "The doctors said you should be able to leave tomorrow. Weiss and I will come through first thing in the morning, and we can all go home. As a team."


	7. Chapter 7

Blake nearly jumped out of her bed in surprise when Ruby burst through the door to her hospital room. "Blake, get up. We need to go."

"What is it, Ruby?"

"Remember that doctor in the video you found? The teams identified her as a woman named Dr. Shida. They found her working in a research lab in Vale, and they arrested her yesterday. They told her you activated her experiment, but she's refusing to say if she can help until she talks to you. Professor Ozpin asked me to get you and bring you there. If we want to figure out what's happening with your aura, this is our best bet." Blake quickly got up and got dressed. She desperately needed to figure out what was wrong with her, and if there was even a chance this would help, she was going to take it.

It wasn't a far walk from the hospital to the police station, and within twenty minutes they walked into the interrogation viewing room where Professor Ozpin was waiting for them. "Miss Belladonna, welcome. I know you're not feeling well, but I think this is the best chance we have of helping you. Go in and talk with her, see if she knows what's happening." Blake nodded, and they walked through the door. She saw the woman from the video sitting at a table in the middle of the room. There was a little more gray in her hair and a few more wrinkles on her face, but it was unmistakably her.

"Are you the two woman who walked through my experiment?" The woman asked. Her voice was weary and filled with guilt.

"My partner and I went through it. She's dead now." Blake couldn't keep the grief, or the anger, out of her voice. She knew she needed this woman's help, but she was also furious with her. Without her, Yang would still be alive. The woman's next words, however, caused that anger to disappear.

"No, she isn't. Not if she was in the chamber with you." Blake was too shocked to speak, but Ruby jumped in. From the tone of her voice, she was as furious as Blake.

"What do you mean? My sister is dead! Your Death Stalker killed her!" She yelled.

"It's more complicated than that. Sit down, and I'll tell you." She said. Blake collapsed into her seat easily enough, but Ruby looked like she was going to start screaming at her before visibly deciding to sit as well. "I'll start from the beginning, okay? The whole point of the experiment was an attempt to pacify the Grimm. An aura is part of your soul, right? The thought was that, if the Grimm could be given a portion of that, the human soul would stop them from being hostile."

"And how did that work out for you?" Ruby asked sarcastically.

"Great, at first." Dr. Shida answered. Blake wasn't sure if she didn't notice the sarcasm or if she was pretending not to notice it. "We developed a method to transfer aura, and the Grimm could successfully manifest it. The second phase is where it fell apart. Even with aura, there was no way to reduce the Grimm's aggression. I grew disillusioned with the increasing recklessness of the experiment and left the project, and that's the last I heard of it."

"How convenient for you." Ruby said, her tone again dripping with sarcasm.

"Not really. From what I've been told, it seems they continued to experiment before everything spiraled out of control. Most of my friends and colleagues from that project are dead." Even in Ruby's anger those words seemed to pierce through, and she looked guiltily at the ground.

This background information was useful, but Blake couldn't stand to wait for the important part anymore. "What about me and Yang? Why did you say she's not dead?"

"Because you went through the aura transfer process together, right?" Blake nodded. "We had two volunteers go through it together to see what would happen. Kastur and Pilos. And at first, nothing happened except for both of their auras disappearing. Then, a few hours later, Kastur collapsed. No matter what we tried, we couldn't wake him up. Pilos' aura started fluctuating wildly, like they said is happening with yours. He kept talking about having conversations with Kastur, despite the man being in a deep coma. Sound at all familiar?" Blake nodded. Exactly like her and Yang. Maybe she wasn't going crazy after all.

"What happened next?" Ruby asked. The anger in her voice was completely gone. It was replaced with something that sounded suspiciously like hope.

"A week later, Kastur woke up, and both of their auras returned to normal. When we asked him what he had seen, Kastur perfectly detailed conversations and events that Pilos had experienced while he was in the coma. For obvious reasons, we decided to never try that again."

"But you think that somehow it fused their consciousnesses together." Blake surmised. Dr. Shida nodded. Blake felt hope rising inside her. Sure, the whole idea didn't seem possible. But a few weeks ago Blake would have sworn changing aura in any way was impossible, and clearly she would have been mistaken.

Ruby didn't seem convinced. "It's been two weeks. If what you're saying is true, why would they still be connected?"

"Because if your friend is dead, then her aura couldn't return to her body. It's possible it would stay attached instead of separating with nowhere else to go."

"So how does that help us? My sister isn't really dead, she's only connected to my friend, unable to affect anything in the real world? Is that supposed to make it better?" Ruby yelled. Her grief had clearly overwhelmed her again, but Blake had to admit she had a point. If this was true, her sister was alive, but she could never see or communicate with her. Yang would essentially be living as a ghost, observing everything without being able to do anything. Blake wasn't sure if she would want to live like that.

"It helps because I can reverse the formula and separate your friend and your sister. Your friend here will return to normal."

"And what about Yang? Wouldn't this kill her?" Blake asked frantically, her sudden panic coming through in her voice. She wanted to return to normal, but not like that. Maybe it was selfish, but she didn't think she could live with herself if she consigned Yang to oblivion.

"Ordinarily, yes. As long as there's nowhere else for her soul to go. But I've continued working with aura even after I left that project. I went back to Atlas, and the next thing I worked on was developing a robotic skeleton that can hold an aura. It took years, but we did it. Of course, we never transferred someone's entire aura into it, but I know Dr. Polendina always wanted to do it." That name sounded familiar to Blake, but she couldn't place where she had heard it. Judging from how Ruby had stiffened up beside her, though, Ruby clearly recognized it. "Let me call him and see if he's willingly to help. If I'm right, we can have everything set up soon. Hopefully we can bring your sister and your friend back to normal, and I'll have one less tragedy on my conscience."

/

It all came together surprisingly quickly thanks to her teammates. The Schnee Dust Company had connections everywhere in Atlas, and Weiss knew exactly how to leverage that to get things done. As soon as they left the room, Ruby explained why she recognized the name, and her being friends with the scientist's beloved daughter sped everything else nicely. It only took a few days for Blake to be lying in Beacon's showers next to a robot who looked very similar to her dead partner. The only thing that was stopping her from breaking down sobbing was the knowledge that soon Yang would be alive, and everything could return back to normal.

"Are you ready, Blake?" Dr. Polendina asked. She nodded. "Okay, beginning liquid transfer now." The shower head above her starting spraying something down, and she gave a little shocked yelp when it hit her. The stuff was freezing cold, and she couldn't stop herself from shivering. Her shaking grew more and more violent, until she felt like she might break apart, before the cold completely vanished. Around her, a golden cloud was slowly condensing. The cloud settled itself in the air above her before shooting down into the body beside her. She felt the entire area rapidly heat up, heard a gasp from beside her, and passed out.

When she woke up, she was lying down on her bed. Cuddled up beside her was an incredibly warm presence. She looked over and saw Yang staring at her. Well, not exactly Yang; the mouth was slightly off, the ears were a little too big, and the lilac eyes were the wrong shade. But her presence, the light behind her eyes, they were all unmistakably her. "Yang, you're alive!" She cried out. She couldn't stop herself anymore; she broke down crying after everything. Yang pulled her closer until she was practically resting on top of her. Yang's body was hard metal now, but it was also as warm as it had been when she was in her old body.

"Thanks to you, Blakey. You saved my life."

"I just fixed a mistake. It was my fault your body died."

"You're being ridiculous, kitten." Yang suddenly got a sultry smile on her face. "We're going to have to come up with a fix for that." Blake felt heat, and desire, race through her. She had waited so long to act on her feelings before that it had almost been too late. She wasn't going to make that same mistake again. She pounced onto Yang and pulled her into a deep kiss. It was different than she had expected. Her lips were warm but hard, and as the kiss went on a metallic taste spread into her mouth. But despite that, it was unmistakably Yang, and that's all that really mattered. The kiss went on and on and on, each second sending a pulse of the most incredible feeling burning through her.

Yang suddenly pulled away, and Blake couldn't stop herself from letting out a low growl. She wasn't ready for this moment to end and, judging from the molten desire swirling through Yang's eyes and the sly smile on her face, neither was she. "Before we keep going, there are six little words I've been waiting years to hear you say."

Blake knew what she wanted instantly, and she was happy to say it. She was sure she would spend the rest of her life saying it. "I love you, Yang Xiao Long."

Yang stared straight back into her eyes. "Blake Belladonna," she said, her voice tender, "you need to wake up."

The desire instantly transformed to panic. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Blake woke up, staring at the hospital ceiling. She looked at the scroll beside her bed and realized with a shock that it was about an hour after Ruby had left her hospital room the night before Blake was supposed to be discharged. There was no Dr. Shida, no aura transfer, no robotic Yang. She had never left the hospital bed. She burst into tears, and she couldn't conceive of any reason to ever stop.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN-** **Sadly, we're coming to the end of the story. My prediction of the length was a chapter too long, so there's one final chapter that will finish everything after this. I'm also changing the release schedule due to the holidays. The finale will be out in two weeks, but it will release on Friday the 28th instead of the usual Wednesday. Thanks for reading up to now, and I hope you enjoy the final chapters.**

* * *

 

When Ruby and Weiss came by in the morning to check her out of the hospital, Blake refused to leave. She didn't see much point. Her injuries were healing, sure, but her aura was still fluctuating wildly. And, honestly, she didn't want to leave. Ruby and Weiss had demanded an explanation, and Blake had grudgingly told the tale of her latest dream. The entire explanation, both of them had stood silent, staring at her with eyes filled with pity. Even once she finished, they didn't have anything to say. Because she sounded crazy. Because she  _was_ crazy. She knew that, now more than ever.

"Oh kitty cat, you're not crazy. Don't ever think that." Ruby finally spoke, but it came out in Yang's voice. Ruby's lips kept moving, and Weiss' soon joined in, but Blake couldn't hear anything coming from them. Suddenly, Yang appeared standing behind Ruby.

"How can you say that? I'm seeing a dead woman." Blake demanded. She didn't know what she expected; she wasn't sure how any answer could possibly help her. But she needed  _something_ to change, before everything completely fell apart.

Yang didn't answer her at first. She stood idly twirling a strand of Ruby's hair together with her finger for a while before saying anything. "My poor baby sister. I would say this is her worst nightmare, but that isn't true. Honestly, this is something she never even considered. She knew being a Huntress was dangerous; it did kill our mother. She came to Beacon prepared for that possibility. She was always ready to lay down her life if that's what she needed to do to protect people." Yang dropped her hair and started circling around her. "But it killing me? It never even crossed her mind. I was her strong older sister. Nothing had ever kept me down, nothing  _could_ ever keep me down."

"None of us did, Yang. You came across as invincible. I never thought anything could kill you, at least not anything I would survive." Blake responded.

Yang ignored her and moved to circling Weiss. "Ice Queen here isn't much better. She's putting on a brave face for both of you, but underneath it all she's starting to crumble. She never really had friends, and she isn't close with most of her family. We were the loving family she never truly knew. She can't keep this up for much longer before she cracks." Yang turned, walked over to her, and cupped Blake's head in her hands.

"They need you, Blake. They need your strength. They need you to be okay. They need you to get out of this bed."

"How can I? How can I live when I can't even tell what's real?"

"Only you can answer that question. The only thing I know is that you're the strongest woman I ever met." Blake nodded her head, and Yang disappeared in front of her. Maybe she was going crazy, but that didn't mean she would let it take her without a fight.

"Okay. You guys are right, it's time for me to leave here." Both of their faces broke into hopeful smiles, and Blake couldn't stop the same expression from appearing on her face. A little hope was something she desperately needed right now.

/

"Nap time's over, kitten. School opens in ten minutes." Yang said.

"Yang? What's going on?"

"What's going on is that I'm not explaining to a bunch of seconds graders that Miss Belladonna is sleeping because she drank too much last night. So get your incredibly appealing ass up."

Something was bothering her in the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite bring it into focus. "I had the weirdest dream."

"You always have weird dreams when you drink tequila. I tell you that every time we go to a bar."

As she woke more up, her memories stopped being so blurry. "You also always buy it for me. Something about how it makes me a better kisser?" When she finally opened her eyes, Yang was smirking down at her.

"I didn't make your rules, Blakey. I just abuse them for our mutual pleasure. Now, uppity up. Five minutes until the doors open."

There was something Blake desperately needed to do, but she couldn't remember what. "Did you get the lesson plan for today finished?" She asked. That must be it. After all, what else could it be?

"Of course. Somebody had to do it, and you certainly weren't in any condition to help."

Blake laughed. "Neither were you. Does Weiss know you stole her plan?"

"Steal is a harsh word. Ruby let me borrow it. Which makes it okay, because half of it is hers. That's how marriage works."

"Pretty sure it isn't."

Yang reached over and flicked at her left hand. It made a soft clang as it hit her new diamond ring. "Guess we'll find out, Mrs. Xiao Long."

"Not happening. I'm keeping my name."

"We'll see. I can be very persuasive."

"Not that persuasive. Blake Xiao Long doesn't exactly roll off the tongue." Before Yang could answer, the bell rang. Blake heard feet clattering through the hallway as children rushed towards their classrooms.

"Saved by the bell, kitten. We'll talk about it later. For now, read over that because you're taking point on the lessons. You know how much the arachnid Grimm ick me out."

The words shook her to her core, and memories started falling loose. "The Death Stalker! We were fighting it, and it killed you!"

Yang laughed at her. "Very funny. When could a Grimm possibly kill me? I know today's show and tell, but someone I doubt any of the kids are bringing in their pet Death Stalker."

Her memories were clear now, though, and she knew this couldn't exist. "This isn't real. Just like before. Just like everything good that has happened since the mansion."

The sound of the children outside disappeared, and the two were left standing alone in a silent room. "Maybe, but what does it matter? I'm here, you're here, all of our friends are here. Blissfully happy and perfectly safe forever."

"You're not here, though. Everything in here is my imagination."

"As opposed to me out there? I'll take a figment of imagination over death any day."

"It isn't real." Blake insisted.

"But it could be real, if you wanted. We can be together forever Blake, as soon as you wake up."

She had known it was coming, but that didn't make it any less jarring when she awoke to her dark dorm room. It didn't lessen the grief or change the fact that every single dream felt like she was losing Yang over and over again.

/

It took a few more days of her teammates hovering over her like bodyguards before they relaxed enough for her to slip away at night. Her real teammates, anyway. Yang was waiting outside Beacon for her. "You're going to scare them if they wake up and you're gone." She said, her voice clearly meant to chastise Blake.

"There's something I need to do. I'll be back by morning."

"What could you possibly need to do alone in the middle of the night?" Yang questioned.

"Don't you know? You're in my head." Blake responded.

Yang laughed. "You're a complicated woman, kitten. Even being inside your head doesn't tell me everything."

"Just be patient then."

"Fine. Be that way." Yang pouted. "I'm up for an adventure with you anyway. Sitting in a hospital room was dull. We can call it "The Quest for Blakey's Sanity"! It'll be fun."

Blake sighed. "Do you have to joke about everything?"

"Have to? No. Want to? Yes."

Blake let out another exasperated sigh and kept moving. It didn't take her long to get to the airfield, and it was easy enough to steal a Bullhead. It wasn't a terribly long ride to her destination. Once she got there, she parked a respectful distance away and started walking towards the cliff.

"Um, you're not going to like, do something weird to my body, right?" Yang asked in a worried voice.

"Of course not. I just need to see your grave again. I need to prove you're dead to myself."

"Ooooookay then. If you think it will help." Yang replied. Her skeptical tone made it clear what she thought of Blake's plan. Maybe she was right, maybe it wouldn't help at all. But Blake was running out of ideas. All she knew was that she couldn't keep living like this. She kept hiking forward until she came close to the cliff. As she crested the hill, instead of the dark view she expected she saw a glowing red portal shimmering over the grave.

Yang suddenly appeared standing in front of her, and there was panic written all over her face and body language. "We need to leave, now. Turn around. Don't go anywhere near that thing."

Blake hesitated for a second, but then she kept moving. She felt drawn to the portal, somehow. She couldn't explain why, but she desperately needed to go through it. She walked straight through Yang, who disappeared into mist before reappearing walking beside her. "Please don't do this, Blake. I need you. I can't lose you. Not like this." Blake kept walking without a word. She marched up to the portal and stepped through it.


	9. Chapter 9

Blake felt intense pressure across her entire body, like she was being crushed. Right before it became too much, it disappeared, and she reappeared in her dorm room. She watched herself and Yang lying on the bed together. Yang was stroking her hair, whispering something in her ear. The other her laughed and kissed Yang.

"You love to imagine this, don't you?" Blake turned and saw Raven standing beside her. "But this is never how it was. Why don't you stop lying to yourself?"

Blake blinked, and the scene shifted. She was lying on her bed, alone, reading a book. It was the final book in the Depths of Haven series and judging from how quickly she was tearing through it this was the first time she'd read it. This was sometime last year, then. She watched herself read for a few minutes before the door opened and Yang popped in. "Hey kitten, I was thinking of going to see a movie tonight. Want to come? We can go get dinner in Vale first."

She briefly looked at Yang before returning to her book, and Blake remembered exactly what she was thinking. The movie might be fun, but she was almost to the climatic reunion between the two lovers. They had been building up to it for the last two books, and Blake could barely contain herself from skipping through the pages until she found it. She couldn't possibly stop reading for the entire night. Yang could surely find someone else to go with her.

"Why don't you get Ruby to go with you instead?" She replied. "You guys have the exact same taste in movies."

"Yeah, of course, I'm sure she'll love it. We'll go together next time." Yang said before turning and walking out the door.

"That's the reality you don't want to face. You never dated, you were never in love." As Raven talked, the scenes shifted. There wasn't any sound, but Blake recognized all of them as conversations with Yang. Her partner would walk into a room with a hopeful smile on her face, walk out of it with her eyes slightly downcast. "Yang tried over, and over, and over again, but you always shut her down." At the time, Blake never considered that Yang was asking her out. Now, watching this, it became obvious. How could she have missed it before?

"Because you were scared. Noticing it would have been acknowledging your feelings for her, but you were too cowardly to do it. Like with all your problems, you ran away from it." Raven said. The room around them seemed to be getting smaller after every word. "It's too bad. If you had just run away before the mission, my daughter would still be alive. But you couldn't even do that right, could you? You had to stay, so she had to die to protect you."

Raven slashed her hand, and the floor beneath Blake disappeared into another red portal. As Blake fell through it, she felt that same pressure squeezing down on her, and her vision went black. When it returned, she was back in her hospital room. Ruby and Weiss were standing there, and their features were twisted into fury. "How dare you show yourself, after you killed her!" Ruby screamed. She raised Crescent Rose and stalked towards Blake. Blake, acting on instinct, drew Gambol Shroud and slashed it at Ruby. She didn't make any move to dodge it; it connected with her, and Ruby dispersed into shadows. As soon as she disappeared, Weiss started advancing menacingly towards her.

"You killed your teammate." Blake slashed at her, and she also turned into shadows.

"You killed your partner." Ruby said from behind her. Blake turned and slashed at her again. Again, it sailed right through her now misty form.

"You killed your friend." Weiss said. Another slash made her disappear.

"You killed your family." Ruby said. Blake couldn't take it anymore; she dropped Gambol Shroud and collapsed onto the floor. Ruby and Weiss started circling around her.

"You killed my sister."

"You killed my friend."

"You murdered the love of your life."

"I trusted you."

"We trusted you."

"You betrayed us."

"You betrayed her."

"How could you?"

"How  _dare_ you!?"

"It was all your fault."

"It was all your fault."

They weren't wrong. "It was all my fault." She whispered back. She blinked, and suddenly she was standing on the edge of Beacon Tower, inches away from falling to her death. She was right about to take a step forward when arms grabbed her and pulled her backwards. Someone knocked her over and pinned her to the ground, and when she looked up she saw Yang sitting on top of her.

"Get off me!" Blake yelled.

"No! I won't let you die like this! You can't leave me, Blake. I need you."

She started struggling to get up. She knew she couldn't live with this anymore. "I can't. I don't know what's real anymore."

"I'm real. I'm here, and I will never, ever leave your side."

"What do you want from me?!" She screamed back.

"It's simple. I want you to wake up."

Blake was sobbing, now. "I don't know what you mean."

Blake heard a woman crying from beside her, and she looked to see another Yang. This one wasn't a Yang she had ever seen before. Her beloved hair was tousled and greasy, there were massive bags under her eyes, and her skin was incredibly pale. The woman spoke, but the words didn't come from her mouth. They came from the room all around her. "Blake, you have to wake up. Please, please wake up."

Blake felt horrible pain ripple through her entire body. She screamed, closed her eyes, and waited for the pain burning through her to end her life.

/

Suddenly the pain faded, and Blake opened her eyes. She looked around and realized she was laying on a bed in the center of her dorm room. Before she could figure out what was happening, the air was pushed from her lungs as a blonde form practically threw herself onto her.

"Blake! You're awake!" She heard Yang cry.

The immediate surge of pleasure she felt from embracing her partner quickly changed into confusion. "Why wouldn't I be awake? And how are you here? I watched you die."

Yang gave a choking laugh and pulled away. "Is that what you were seeing? That's horrible." Before Blake could respond, the door opened. She saw a glimpse of red before the air was again crushed from her as Ruby hugged her and a trail of petals fluttered to the ground.

"Blake-you're-awake-we-were-so-worried-you-wouldn't-get-up-and-we-couldn't-do-anything-and-I-thought-you-might-never-wake-up-and-it-was-horrible-but-now-you're-fine-and-everything-is-okay!" She said in a single breath. Even after all these years, Blake was still amazed how much she could cram into a single sentence. Ruby kept hugging her tight, crying into her shoulder, and Blake was right about to get worried about asphyxiation when Yang grabbed her sister and lifted her off the bed.

"That's enough, Rubes. We don't want her to pass out again. Go grab Weiss, she'll want to be here as soon as possible." Ruby nodded, her eyes shining with happiness beneath the tears, and sped off in a cloud of petals.

Blake took a deep breath to calm herself. A lot was happening, and she was still incredibly confused, but she couldn't help but smile. The pure relief coming off the two sisters was contagious. "What happened, Yang? I saw the Death Stalker break your neck."

"What happened was that Death Stalker tail knocked you out when it hit you. When I saw it, I didn't know if you were still alive. So I sort of, um," Yang shrugged her shoulders, "exploded and punched a hole straight through its head. We thought you were just unconscious, but when we got back here you still wouldn't wake up. The doctors found some mutated Death Stalker venom in your system. It must have stung you when it hit you." Yang's explanation was interrupted by someone sprinting through the door. Blake only managed to get a flash of white before a third woman was crushing her.

"I missed you so much." Weiss said between sobs. Blake, surprised by her normally aloof teammate's affection, only hugged her back.

"Anyway, they said the venom was keeping you in a coma, and they weren't sure if you would ever wake up again." Yang continued. Blake thought about it. Could the whole thing have a nightmare? It would certainly make sense of what she had been feeling. And this was real. She knew that on a basic, fundamental level. Now that she was outside it, the haze she had been under was obvious.

"I didn't think I would ever get out either."

"Yang spent the entire time sitting here talking to you. The doctors said it might help." Weiss added.

Yang looked down in embarrassment and shrugged. "It was all I could do. Who knows if it did anything." Blake reached up and pulled Yang down into a kiss. Waves of pleasure crashed through her as it continued. Yang's soft skin glowed warm wherever she touched it, and Blake reveled in the smell of smoke coming off her and the hint of cinnamon spreading from her lips. She pulled back and stared straight into Yang's now smoldering eyes

"It did. You saved me." Blake pulled Yang back down again, and nothing else in the world mattered to them.

* * *

**And that's it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a happy ending. As some people have already guessed, this was heavily inspired by Futurama's "The Sting". An excellent story with a very appropriate name.**

**If anyone is curious, you can see when Yang's true words come through the story. Whenever she calls her Blake, that paragraph is real. Everything with a nickname or no address is from Blake's imagination. Thank you so much for reading and special thanks to everyone who gave me feedback or suggestions.**


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